project

The most ambitious US military project in space has a new owner: SpaceX

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The United States Government has hired SpaceX to act as the backbone of its military telecommunications system. After several delays of an initial system, based on the participation of multiple companies and entities, it has now been decided to bet all data transport on Elon Musk’s request. Starshield satellites. Although the technical details have not been announced at the moment, this agreement between the Pentagon and SpaceX is possibly based mainly on the contracting of Starshield services, satellites with technology similar to that of Starlink, but adapted to military applications. The space company It already has hundreds of these satellites in low Earth orbit, some of them involved in actions such as attacks on Iran. A system made up of layers. The hiring of SpaceX, in which 2.29 billion dollars have been invested, is aimed at the development of the backbone. That is, the central layer of the data transport system used by the United States for military purposes. This system consists of more layers, in which more companies will intervene, which will be in charge, for example, of tracking. However, everything revolves around the axis constituted by Elon Musk’s satellites. The functions. With all these contracts, the United States intends to facilitate the tactical communications of the US Army thanks to access to broadband communication services worldwide. In addition, the aim is to work on the detection and tracking of missile launches and, in turn, connect sensors and shooters. In short, SpaceX must provide the backbone of a system composed of sensors that detect possible threats and a network that communicates these threats as quickly as possible to anti-missile systems and shooters so that they act accordingly. Other companies. While SpaceX will focus on data transportation and the cohesion of all actors involved in the United States military plan, other companies will be in charge of tracking. In recent years, the Space Development Agency hired for it to L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rocket Lab, all companies that have already begun developing satellites for this purpose. On the other hand, the last three, together with York Space Systems, they had been hired also for transportation purposes, similar to those that have finally been entrusted to SpaceX. At the moment it does not seem that the development of its own satellites has been cancelled, but the change in strategy, much more focused on SpaceX, is clear. Concerned legislators. Despite the intervention of other companies, legislators have expressed concern about the decision to put all the transportation and telecommunications eggs in Elon Musk’s basket. Given this situation, the spokesperson for the United States Space Force has assured who are already looking for a second contractor to build Space Data Network satellites. At the moment it is only SpaceX’s task, but they intend to increase competition. SpaceX’s duties. As they point out from Ars TechnicaElon Musk’s company is obliged to deliver a “prototype of fully operational capacity” for its telecommunications system before the end of 2027. With this, SpaceX diversifies its work, entering fully into the military field. Is this surprising? The truth is, not too much. Now all that remains is to see how it swims in these waters in which He had already made his first dives. Image | US Space Force photo by Gwendolyn Kurzen/Diego González (Unsplash) In Xataka | Once again, Ukraine has opened a missile launched by Russia. Once again, surprising manufacturers have been found

Spain and Morocco have been dreaming of a tunnel under the Strait for 40 years. The great enemy of the project is called Umbral de Camarinal

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Linking Europe with Africa from the Strait of Gibraltar has been discussed for decades. However, in recent years we have seen how the Governments of the countries involved have been adding steps to this project. Spain and Morocco work has accelerated in recent months to make a railway tunnel a reality that would pass under the Strait and that would connect Punta Paloma (Tarifa) with Cape Malabata (near Tangier). The infrastructure (if it is built) would easily become a historic engineering work, allowing people to cross from one continent to another in just half an hour. What are we talking about?. The project contemplates a strictly railway tunnel, without a viaduct or vehicle lanes (something it originally discussed doing), with a total length of about 42 kilometers between stations, of which 27.7 are submerged. The deepest point it would reach 475 meters below sea level and would cross what is known as the Camarinal Threshold, the shallowest area of ​​the Strait and, curiously, much more complex from a geological point of view. What would it be like inside?. According to data collected by the Spanish public company SECEGSA, the design proposes two independent single-track tubes, each with an inner diameter of 7.90 metersand a 6-meter central service gallery for maintenance and emergency tasks. This gallery would connect with the main tubes through transversal passages every 340 meters. At the lowest point of the layout there would be a safe parking area with intervention areas and a smoke extraction system. High-speed trains for passengers and shuttle convoys for goods and vehicles would run through the tunnel. Who is in charge. The project is moving forward in two ways. On the Spanish side, the work is coordinated by SECEGSA, a public company created in the eighties precisely to promote this connection. On the Moroccan side, the Government has decided to concentrate all its efforts on the channel with Madridruling out other parallel paths. The most recent and relevant agreement It was signed on December 4, 2025 in La Moncloa between the Minister of Transport of Spain, Óscar Puente, and his counterpart in Morocco, Karim Zidane. It contains a memorandum between the Spanish National Geographic Institute and the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research of Morocco (CNRST) to jointly study the seismicity and geodynamics of the Strait for three years. Financing. In March of this year, the Spanish Government approved an additional transfer of 1.73 million euros to finance technical studies, according to they count from La Razón. Added to this item is a marine research campaign commissioned by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) with a budget of 553,187 euros, published in the Official State Gazette. This campaign, lasting about 15 days and scheduled for the first half of 2026, includes high-resolution bathymetry, sampling of sediments and rocks from the seabed, and laboratory analysis. Three CSIC institutes participate (Marine, Geological and Mining Sciences, and Oceanography), the Navy Hydrographic Institute and the United States Geological Survey. Obstacles. The key is in the Camarinal Threshold. The Spanish subsidiary of the German manufacturer Herrenknecht, specialized in tunnel boring machines, carried out a feasibility study that concluded that the work is technically possible with current engineering, although he warned of enormous logistical and economic challenges. The subsoil of that area is made up of materials from the Flysch Complex, with layers of sandstone and clay of turbidite origin, covered by more recent sediments. This geological variability, added to the fact that the Strait is located on the Azores-Gibraltar-Tunisia fracture, the same one that caused the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755makes excavation a particularly complex challenge. On the other hand, it should be noted that the Strait is not an easy scenario. More than 100,000 ships pass through its waters a year and the study area is located within a Special Conservation Area with a protection plan for orcas. More than 1,900 species of marine flora and fauna have been recorded, which requires obtaining certain environmental permits before doing anything. How much will it cost. Although there are no concrete figures on how much the project would cost, Morocco World News situates the estimated cost alone for the Spanish part is above 8.5 billion euros, while other media such as El Diario elevate the total budget above 15,000 million, to be distributed between Spain, Morocco and the European Union. In any case, it will be one of the most expensive infrastructures ever built in the region. When will it be ready. Here it is advisable to lower expectations. And the deadlines that are managed They place the possible inauguration between 2035 and 2040always in the best of scenarios, but very possibly set more in the 2040s than before (that is, if the work is ever executed). If the seismic and geotechnical studies end up being favorable, a reconnaissance gallery could be put out to tender in 2027, requiring several years to complete to obtain detailed information on the terrain and the viability of the project. Why it matters beyond engineering. Connecting Africa with Europe by rail would encourage trade in very profitable ways, integrating the railway networks of the Maghreb with the European system and making the peninsular south take on a completely different color as a logistical node. Of course, it also raises political debates, especially regarding immigration management. Be that as it may, we will still have to wait to find out if the project finally materializes. Cover image | SECEGSA and Google Earth In Xataka | Amazon wants to save its ‘cloud’ from the mud: the plan to shield Zaragoza against large floods

This is the Basque project that wants to convert waves into cheap electricity

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On May 12, a 42-meter steel buoy was towed from the Bilbao estuary to the open sea off Armintza. It is not the first time he has made that trip. It already did it in 2016, endured three winters with waves of up to 14 meters, generated electricity and returned to port with something equally valuable: data. Now it comes back improved. The Basque firm IDOM has released the Marmok A-5 again in the Cantabrian Sea, and this time he knows exactly what he has to prove. It’s not just another test. The promise of wave energy is not small. As he explains to the magazine Renewable Energies IDOM wave engineer, Patxi Etxaniz: “The amount of resources available worldwide is brutal; if we are able to obtain that energy in an economically profitable way, we have solved the global energy problem.” The problem, until now, has always been the same: extract it without ruining yourself in the attempt. The race to achieve this is fought by just a dozen or fifteen actors around the world: the Swedish CorPower, several Scottish engineering companies, companies from France, Wales, Finland and Italy, and Asian actors from Korea, China and Japan who, in the words of Etxaniz, “do not publish anything, they are very discreet.” IDOM is already in that group. The Cantabrian piston. The Marmok is, in essence, a buoy with a cylinder of water inside. As detailed Europe Wavewhen a wave arrives, that column of water rises and falls like a piston, compressing and expanding the air in an upper chamber. In this way, this air flow moves a turbine that generates electricity and, finally, an underwater cable takes it to land. The technology is called OWC – oscillating water column – and the new Marmok has improved it on three fronts, according to BiMEP: new turbine with controllable blades, intelligent control system with onboard batteries, and radically simplified anchoring. This latest change was born directly from one of the most costly and dangerous problems of the first campaign. As Etxaniz explained: “The anchorage we had worked well, but we needed a lot of divers, and they are expensive, and their work is dangerous: underwater, with ropes with a lot of tension, one of them whips you and you can have a serious problem.” Problem detected, problem solved. In this new campaign, in addition, the Marmok will connect to the grid for the first time through the HarshLab platform, a floating laboratory integrated into the BiMEP infrastructure, which will allow both to evacuate the energy generated and to monitor the behavior of the system in real time. Twelve years of work. The Marmok did not appear overnight. Its first models were tested at the El Pardo Hydrodynamic Experience Center in 2012. From there they went to the Tecnalia laboratories, then to the BiMEP offshore facilities in Mutriku, and finally to the open sea in October 2016, where it became the first wave energy converter connected to the electrical grid in Spain and one of the first in the world. Behind that journey was the team from the Basque company Oceantec. IDOM saw the potential, hired them en bloc and integrated them into its structure. More than a decade of work, financing from the Basque Energy Agency and support from the European innovation program EuropeWave later, what began as a laboratory prototype is today, according to BiMEPa device ready to advance towards pre-commercial phases. As Borja de Miguel, project manager at IDOM, summarizes: in statements collected by Europe Wave: “Achieving secure installation and grid connection at BiMEP is a key step in bringing wave energy closer to commercial reality.” What’s coming Over the next few months, the team will verify the performance of the new systems and progressively increase operations. The data collected by this campaign will serve two purposes: demonstrate results to EuropeWave and decide what the next phase of development will look like. The objective is not academic. It means lowering costs until a Cantabrian wave can compete, in price, with any other energy source. There is no date for that yet. “It will depend on the investment,” says Etxaniz. But the window exists, the group of applicants is small, and Basque engineering has been learning to read the sea for more than ten years. The Marmok already knows how to survive three stormy winters. Now you have to learn how to do it cheaply. Image | EuropeWave Xataka | For years, wave energy was the ugly duckling of renewables. AI and data centers have taken a turn

It is a project that has been lying fallow for more than 30 years.

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Bilbao has been promising for a long time a subfluvial tunnel that runs under the Nervión, connecting both banks to be able to cross it in a few minutes. This would alleviate one of the biggest bottlenecks in Euskadi. The good news is that The works will start this summer. A problem that has been unsolved for decades. The Rontegi bridge supports nearly 175,000 vehicles a day and has become the main road bottleneck in Bizkaia. Crossing from one bank to the other of the Nervión estuary without passing through that point requires a detour of more than 13 kilometers. This causes chronic traffic jams, a considerable loss of time and ends up generating more emissions. The solution that had been on the table for decades (and that is now finally beginning to materialize) is a subfluvial tunnel that pierces the bed of the Nervión and directly connects the Right Bank with the Left Bank. What exactly is going to be built. The subfluvial will be 3.2 kilometers long and will be made up of two independent tubes (one in each direction of travel), each with two lanes and safety shoulders. It will link the Artaza roundabout, between Leioa and Getxo, with Ballonti, between Portugalete and Sestao. Just like they count from El Correo, the project will also include connections with La Avanzada, the Uribe Kosta corridor and the Getxo neighborhood of Zugazarte. The intention with the project is that in a journey that today can exceed fifteen minutes during rush houris reduced to just four. The effective distance will go from about 13 kilometers surrounding the estuary to just four. Heavy vehicles must pay a toll to use it, as occurs on other roads in Bizkaia. A technical challenge. The most demanding section will require drilling up to 45 meters below the river bed, crossing quite geologically sensitive materials. The Lamiako area, with its sandy terrain, is one of the most delicate points of the entire route. The project will use the cut and cover technique, which involves excavating from the surface, installing side retaining walls and then covering the infrastructure to generate a false underground tunnel. According to The Mailthe works will begin in Artaza, the access on the Right Bank and also the most delicate environment of the project, as it is made up of areas with a high residential density, and a school and institute nearby. More than 80 controlled microblasts will be used and it is expected that the Artaza park will be partially emptied. To minimize the impact and disturb neighbors as little as possible, open-air work will be limited to daytime and working hours. Of course, within the galleries, drilling will be done in continuous shifts, 24 hours a day. Figures. The work has quite an important magnitude, to be honest. According to data from the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, the execution of the subfluvial will involve excavating 1.8 million cubic meters of earth and use more than 21,000 tons of steel. About 170 trucks will circulate every day to remove the extracted material (90 through the mouth of Artaza and 80 through Ballonti), whose destination will be the facilities of the Port of Bilbao, where the earth will be used to fill dikes. How the project is progressing and how much it will cost. The Provincial Council has already awarded two of the four major contracts into which the work is divided. As shared by El Correo, the Artaza junction will be executed by the UTE formed by Ferrovial, Construcciones Mariezcurrena and Cycasa, while the section to the Lamiako plain will be assumed by Nortúnel, Geotunel and Tunelan. Both contracts total 277 million euros (without VAT) and have an expected duration of 60 months. The Left Bank contracts (Ballonti access and riverbed drilling) will be awarded later. The total investment in the project is expected to be around 540 million euros, with a view to completing the work by 2032. Emissions and neighborhood controversy. The Provincial Council defends that the subfluvial will reduce polluting emissions thanks to shorter and more fluid routes, with an estimated annual saving of 6,000 tons of CO₂ and two million liters of fuel. However, the project It has generated quite a bit of discussion among the neighbors.. And various neighborhood and environmental platforms criticize the prioritization of road traffic in the midst of the climate transition. They also remember that the initial project contemplated a rail connection with Bilbao Metro stations such as Areeta and Sestao, something that ended up disappearing in the final project. This train was, precisely, one of the City Council’s main arguments in terms of sustainability. Artaza residents also express concern about noise, vibrations from blasting and truck traffic during years of construction. The Provincial Council has promised permanent controls, prior technical inspections in nearby buildings and a citizen service office throughout the execution. Cover image | Minube and Bizkaia.eus In Xataka | The most ambitious megastructure in Madrid is one beam closer to becoming a reality: the Ventas elevated park

This is how the Rocketroll project works

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Artemis II has been an example of how far space travel can go. So far that there will come a time when the technologies currently used to propel ships will be insufficient. There is no point in using solar energy if we move too far from the Sun or travel to the Moon, with 14-day nights. Nor is it useful to use the best fuel if the trip is going to be so long, so far and with so much load that refueling needs would be unfeasible. For this reason, nuclear propulsion has been considered for some time to take ships where they cannot go today. The European Space Agency (ESA) has also jumped on that bandwagon and has already carried out its first studies. An order for three consortia. The ESA just announced the first results of the Rocketroll project, which has asked three independent consortia to design an approach to use nuclear electric propulsion in European space missions. This is something that other space agencies, such as NASA, have already begun to study, but in European territory work had not yet been done on this specific issue. Thermonuclear propulsion vs nuclear-electric propulsion. In fact, nuclear propulsion for spacecraft had already been studied in Europe. That is the key to the Alumni project, presented by ESA last year. The difference is that in that case a thermonuclear propulsion system was designed. That is, a reactor in which nuclear fission generates heat that is used to heat a fluid that serves as a propellant. What has been studied in Rocketroll is different, since nuclear fission generates electricity, which is supplied to a series of electric motors. Each one has its advantages. In absolute terms, thermonuclear propulsion is more powerful. However, it is accompanied by technical problems, such as storing a sufficient amount of propellant. Plus, it’s very expensive. The other option is cheaper and, accompanied by some chemical propulsion, is just as powerful. That is why ESA is so interested in having its ships work with this mechanism. Three consortia, three proposals. Three multidisciplinary consortia have participated in this project: Tractebel, CNRS and OHB Czech Space. Each has made a proposal that would be incorporated into the entire system. For example, the first consortium has proposed using enriched uranium as a generator of nuclear power. Uranium-238 is the most abundant in nature, but it is not fissile. This means that a nuclear fission chain reaction cannot be maintained from it. Nuclear fission is the process by which energy is obtained in nuclear reactors, so it is of no use to us. On the other hand, Uranium-235 is fissile. Enriched uranium is richer in this isotope, so it can be used in a nuclear reactor. Compared to other options, such as Plutonium-239, Tractebel considers that this is better. For its part, CNRS proposes using a molten salt reactor. That is, a reactor in which this type of salts are used as coolant and/or fuel to trigger nuclear fission. Finally, the third consortium proposes that the ships be larger to optimize the results. Scheme of the alumni nuclear thermal propulsion system (Image rotated) A safe option. All consortia conclude that nuclear-electric propulsion can open new paths for space exploration. This is great news, but we may have doubts about its safety. Before them, they remember that it is a risk-free process. The uranium that would be activated remains inert and is only activated, to trigger nuclear fission, once it is in orbit. There would be no risks while handling the ships on Earth. In addition, shields are used so that astronauts and spacecraft cargo are not at risk when the reaction is triggered. We must not forget that space is also a large source of radiationso ships must be properly protected. Next steps. This first step by Rocketroll has been little more than a brainstorm. There is still quite a way to go. For example, each system will have to be studied separately, from the nuclear reactor to the radiation shield, including the energy conversion system, the thermal heating and cooling system and the electric thrusters. For all this, ESA has already formed a nuclear propulsion working group that will oversee the design and construction of subscale hardware. There will also be laboratory tests to confirm that everything is working properly before even thinking about testing the system in space. This technology may be the future, but it must be tested slowly. Image | THAT In Xataka | The West stopped building nuclear power plants because they were too expensive: China is teaching it a lesson

The largest naval project in German history since World War II is turning out to be a crazy disaster

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In Europe, large military programs often take more than a decade to be completed and, in many cases, end up costing several times more than initially anticipated. It is not uncommon for complex projects to accumulate thousands of technical requirements and go through multiple reviews before reaching production. In this context, some plans are born as emblems of modernization… and end up becoming examples of how difficult it is to bring them to fruition. From something historic to something unsustainable. He program F126 was born as the great symbol of German rearmament and largest naval project of the country since the Second World War, but over time it has become quite the opposite: an example of how an ambitious plan can derail to the point of collapse. Conceived as a latest generation frigateflexible and prepared for decades of service, the project has not only accumulated delays and cost overrunsbut has called into question Germany’s ability to execute large military programs at a time when it aspires to lead European defense. Technical errors and chaos. He told in an extensive report the financial times that the origin of the problem seems as modern as it is devastating: a failed bet on a new software design that was not ready for a project of this scale. What should have been an advanced tool ended up generating cascading errors, from cables incorrectly located on the plans to steel parts manufactured with incorrect shapes, forcing manual corrections and slowing down the entire production. The result was a system that was moving at just a fraction of its planned pace, with delays that pushed the initial delivery several years later than planned. A culture shock. It turns out that the problem was not just technical. Apparently, the media reported that the project was trapped in a deep shock between the Dutch shipyard’s way of working and the German contracting system, known for its extreme rigidity. Thousands of specifications detailed even the smallest elements, while approval processes were they dragged on for months within a complex bureaucracy that required paper documentation and rejected even plans in English. This combination made collaboration a slow, frustrating, and, in many cases, unproductive process. Skyrocketing costs and limit decisions. As the problems piled up, so did made the invoice: The project, initially valued in the billions, began to go off track with significant cost overruns and structural delays. As it is, Germany now faces critical decisions ranging from replacing the main contractor to accepting billions already invested. as irrecoverable losses. At the same time, faster but less ambitious alternative solutions are being studied, reflecting the extent to which the original project has lost credibility. Notice to sailors of rearmament. If you like, the case of the F126 goes beyond a simple industrial failure: it reveals the limits of European military cooperation even among closely integrated countries and raises questions about the continent’s ability to implement complex joint programs. In a context of increasing of defense spending and increasing strategic pressure, the project has become a clear warning: It is not enough to invest more, you also have to know how to manage better. Because otherwise, even the most important projects can end up being, as in this case, a costly and lengthy example of what not to do. Image | Give me In Xataka | Germany is experiencing a new “industrial miracle” that it already experienced 90 years ago: that of weapons In Xataka | Germany was a sleeping military giant: now it has been awakened and it is already surpassing the US in bullets produced per year

NASA has put a Spaniard in charge of the project for its future lunar base: Carlos García-Galán from Malaga

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Dressed in a jacket, light blue shirt and gold tie, Carlos García-Galán He did not occupy another chair at the NASA conference held in Washington. Escorted by the administrator Jared Isaacman and other top-level officials, the engineer from Malaga spoke before the press in the middle of the presentation of the agency’s new lunar turn. His presence at that time placed him at the forefront of a roadmap that redefines NASA’s priorities on the Moon. The context of that scene helps understand its relevance. Hours before,Isaacman had presented a roadmap that changes the focus of the agency. It is no longer just about returning to the Moon, but about establishing a sustained presence on its surface. The proposal involves deploying in three phases the initial elements of a permanent lunar base, with stable infrastructure and a logic that is more industrial than experimental. The man from Malaga who now pilots the Moon Base program This change of course also redefines the role of those who must execute it. In this context appears García-Galán, whose official position within NASA is “executive program” at the lunar base. This is a high-level management position, responsible for coordinate and guide program development, not an operational role on the ground. His role will be to lead the project from the agency structure, not to direct a facility on the lunar surface. García-Galán, remember, is not a newcomer, but an engineer who has developed his career within NASA and has been assuming responsibilities for years to get to this point. His presence in the announcement is linked to that trajectory, which now places him in one of the great bets of the US space agency at this stage. His career within NASA helps to understand why he has come this far. Before this appointment, García-Galán, according to LinkedInheld the position of “deputy manager” of the Gateway program, until now a relevant piece in the agency’s lunar architecture. With more than 27 years of experience In manned space flights, he has worked on the design, integration and operation of complex systems, participating in programs such as the International Space Station and the Orion spacecraft. His experience at Gateway also helps explain this appointment. In that program, García-Galán was involved in integration and management tasks within an environment with multiple partners and components. The new approach towards a lunar base requires precisely this ability to order diverse pieces, from missions to infrastructure, something that fits with the profile that has been developed within the agency in recent years. The program that he will now supervise is divided into several phases with a common objective: establishing a sustained presence on the lunar surface. NASA proposes a sequence of missions that will go deploying infrastructurefrom mobility and energy systems to communications networks and habitats. The idea is to advance progressively towards a base capable of sustaining longer-term human stays. Images | NASA (1, 2, 3) In Xataka | Elon Musk knows that TSMC is overwhelmed: Terafab is his idea to completely change the global chip industry

Microsoft killed the traditional Xbox by saying that everything was an Xbox. Now he wants to resurrect it with Project Helix

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Microsoft has quietly withdrawn its “This is an Xbox” campaign, the initiative with which it had spent 16 months trying to convince the world that any device (television, mobile phone, tablet) It was technically an Xbox.. The deletion coincides with the replacement at the top managementthe debut of Project Helix at GDC and a market paradox: Sony and Microsoft have become, at the same time, the main defenders of the concept “a console is a console.” The campaign. The series of ‘This is an Xbox’ ads were launched under the presidency of Sarah Bond and functioned as the great manifesto of the post-hardware era of Microsoft Gaming. Now it has disappeared without an official statement: the blog entry that opened it on Xbox Wire gives error 404and searching for the term in the official Xbox news repository only returns one article about ROG Xbox Ally. The files indicate that the page was still accessible on March 1, 2026. What was it about? The idea behind “This is an Xbox” was, in theory, reasonable: expand the ecosystem beyond its own hardware, bet on the streaming in the cloud as a gateway and normalize that playing Xbox did not require purchasing an Xbox console. The problem is that the argument, taken to its extreme, destroyed the reason for the hardware. The campaign generated more confusion than interest, with fans wondering why they would buy an Xbox if the titles were available on any platform. The rejection. Apparentlythe initiative was not well received internally, and the company made some strategic lurches. For example, the announcement of an Xbox mobile store in summer 2024 never materialized. A few months later, with the arrival of Asha Sharma as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming and the departure of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond, the campaign has ended up being withdrawn. The phrase with which Sharma summed up this new change of direction speaks for itself: “The plan is the plan until it isn’t“. More from Helix. The same day that the 404 of “This is an Xbox” was discovered, Microsoft had a presence at GDC 2026 with the Developer Summit dedicated to Project Helix. Jason Ronald, vice president of Next Generation at Xbox, presented the technical details of the upcoming hardware: a console powered by a custom AMD SoC, co-designed for next-generation DirectX and FSR technology, and which the company describes as “an order of magnitude leap” in gaming performance. ray tracing: pscaling Next Generation ML, ML Multi-Frame Generation and Ray Regeneration for games with path tracing The technical details that AMD provided completed the picture: the custom chip is built on RDNA 5 architecture and TSMC’s 3nm process, and incorporates a dedicated NPU that will power all advanced rendering capabilities, including FSR Diamond. Developer alpha kits will begin shipping in 2027, and the company is committed to maintaining compatibility with games from four generations of Xbox. Not everything is perfect. The complicating point in the “return to consoles” story is that Microsoft told the developers at GDC that “build for PC” is the correct approach going forward, suggesting that Project Helix is, at heart, a PC disguised as a console. That is, it is closer to the ambitious project of Valve with its Steam Machine that of the Sony gives up making more PC games. In addition, Xbox Mode will arrive on Windows 11 in April, bringing the console experience directly to the desktop PC, and the Play Anywhere catalog already exceeds 1,500 titles. The Sony thing. It is commented that Sony is returning to the old strategy of exclusives as a hardware sales lever after the PC ports did not work as expected. Part of the problem was one of timing: games arrived on PC months or years after the console launch, making it difficult to build a stable audience on the platform. There is Steam data very significant: ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered’, for example, reached a peak of just 66,000 simultaneous players, a figure that did not justify the continued investment in big-budget game ports. Sony and Microsoft, two companies that took opposite paths in the last generation (one opening up to the PC, the other trying to dissolve the very idea of ​​the console), have simultaneously reached the same conclusion. A console is a console, and hardware has to have value. In Xataka | “We will not flood our ecosystem with soulless AI garbage.” We already know what Asha Sharma wants to do as CEO of Microsoft Gaming

its new Project Helix is ​​a direct torpedo to Valve’s Steam Machine

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Microsoft has revealed the code name of its next-generation console, a hybrid system between console and PC that will be able to run games from both ecosystems. Project Helix arrives at a turbulent time for the industry: global RAM memory crisis, Valve fighting to launch its own Steam Machine and PlayStation rethinking its presence on PC. Helix Project. Asha Sharma, new CEO of Xboxhas announced that the next Microsoft console receives the internal name of Project Helix. Sharma assured that the device will be a leader in performance and will allow you to play both Xbox and PC titles, thus confirming the rumors that have been circulating for months about hardware that blurs the line between both platforms. The next Game Developers Conference, between March 9 and 13, will be the scene of the first conversations with partners and developers. What does it have? Beyond Sharma’s statements we can scratch some more information: the heart of the system is a semi-custom SoC from AMD whose internal code name is Magnus. According to AMD CEO Lisa Su, during the presentation of fourth quarter results As of 2025, development of the chip is progressing well to support a 2027 launch. Leaks point to a combination of Zen 6 CPU cores and an RDNA 5-based GPU, with up to 48GB of GDDR7 memory. These are specifications that, if the estimates so far are correct, would exceed those of the future. PlayStation 6. How it works. The device will essentially function as a gaming PC whose main interface will be the Xbox Full Screen Experience, already released on the ASUS Xbox Ally laptop. From this interface, designed to replicate the simplicity of a console, the user can choose to jump to the Windows 11 desktop and install Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Battle.net or any other software from the Microsoft ecosystem. PCs of a lifetime. That Xbox is a PC at its core is not a new idea. The original 2001 console already had an Intel Pentium III and an Nvidia GPU, a configuration much closer to the computer world than to the proprietary chip that defined Sony or Nintendo consoles at that time. All subsequent generations have maintained the x86 architecture, and both Xbox One as Xbox Series X They use AMD SoC with architecture shared with Ryzen and Radeon. What changes with Helix is ​​the software layer: where before the operating system was a closed environment, now there is a complete Windows under the shell. Listen, Valve. The comparison with this console that immediately comes to mind is Valve’s Steam Machine, announced in November as a compact desktop PC powered by SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system that already powers the Steam Deck. Valve works in the opposite direction than Helix: part of the Steam catalog, it works on Linux and offers the possibility of installing Windows as a secondary option. The destiny of both machines is the same: to dynamite the boundaries between console and desktop PC. Valve suffers. The Steam Machine is going through its own ordeals. Valve announced in February a delay in its release schedule (originally, first quarter of the year) and the need to review the price, citing the global shortage of memory and storage as the cause. The analysts They project a price of between $400 and $500 as the optimal range, although the most recent estimates raise the range above $750, a territory that distances it from direct competition with Sony and Microsoft consoles. Valve, which has ruled out selling hardware at a loss, is at the mercy of the components market. The memory crisis Due to the demands of the AIs, it is the great backdrop of this battle. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have turned their production lines towards high-margin HBM memory consumed by artificial intelligence data centers, leaving DRAM and NAND Flash destined for the consumer market in the background. The consequences are already being felt: manufacturers such as Lenovo, Dell, HP and ASUS have warned of increases of between 15% and 20% in the price of their equipment for this year. Exclusive worlds. The franchises that for decades defined Xbox’s identity have begun to come to PlayStation, a decision that Sharma herself has acknowledged wanting to review. Meanwhile, Sony abandons publishing games on PCwith the intention of reinforcing the attractiveness of its exclusives. But Xbox is betting on the opposite. It seems clear that Sharma (who has no experience in the video game industry) does not conceive Helix as a traditional console, but as a platform whose success will depend on alliances with digital stores and the integration of services such as Game Pass. In Xataka | There is brutal competition for our attention. And there is someone losing that battle in a bloody way: the consoles

China wants to win the military space race and that is why it is working on a humble project: a space destroyer

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China has underway a space project worthy of ‘Star Wars’. In another context, it could sound like a tremendous exaggeration, but only one thing has to be said: the image that crowns this article belongs to a propaganda video from the Nantianmen Project. Specifically, it is the Luanniao, a larger space aircraft carrier than any aircraft carrier and able to throw hypersonic missiles and unmanned space fighters. More than terrifying, for some, it is simply high-tech theater. Nantianmen. First of all, you have to separate concepts. Nantianmen is a Chinese air force project that began in 2017 focused on the design of a global defense system. This includes practically everything we can think of such as fighters, weapons, autonomous vehicles, transport and launch platforms. It is a program that seeks to explore the paths that Chinese military aviation may have in the future, and it must be understood that, within Nantianmen, there are two types of designs: those that have been brought to the real plane through models and those that are on paper. An example of the first is Baidi, a manned aircraft that would become the jewel in the crown of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. And an example of the second is the monstrous destroyer Imperial Chinese. Luanniao. The video that I leave above these lines is the one that the state channel CCTV published a few days ago in which we can see… a lot of 3D elements doing movie things. In certain fragments the Luanniao appears, but it is not the first time that this space aircraft carrier can be seen. As pointed out South China Morning Postin 2018, shortly after the project started, the AVIC Global Culture Communication Company – a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China – showed a conceptual model of the Luanniao at an air show. We now have some more details thanks to the most recent CCTV broadcast. According to the network’s data, the Luanniao will make any conventional aircraft carrier look ridiculous: 242 meters long. 684 meters wingspan. Weight of more than 100,000 tons. Capable of carrying 88 unmanned Xuannv fighters both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere. And a full weapons team, with particle acceleration cannons and hypersonic missiles. To give us an idea, the American aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford It measures 337 meters by 77 meters. Pride. In the same video a model of the Baidi appears, a variable geometry wing aircraft that, as we say, seems to be the banner of Chinese aerospace innovation. In fact, the Asian giant is testing its new generation of both combat-ready fighters like those focused on air supremacy and reconnaissance. But, obviously, the one that attracts the most attention is Lunniao. From the network, it was commented that the aircraft carrier will become operational in two or three decades, and military analyst Wang Mingzhi, from the PLA Air Force Command College, affirms that technologies such as those of the Nantianmen Project reflect both the “expectations for future aerospace and space superiority and the directions being pursued to safeguard national security.” “It is not a question of whether they can be achieved, but rather which ones will be done first and when they will be implemented,” pointed out. “China is creating the impression that it is working on technologies that no one else can achieve. It is still ‘Star Wars’ material to inspire the Chinese audience” – Peter Layton Arching an eyebrow. Now, Western analysts are not so optimistic about something that has been described as mere propaganda rather than practical weapons development. Attacking the more earthly issue, defense analyst Peter Layton of Australia’s Griffith Asia Institute point Yes, the Luanniao would surpass both current defenses as storms when flying at an altitude higher than that which surface-to-air missiles and conventional fighter aircraft can reach. The “but” is that the technology to remain suspended at the edge of the atmosphere and launch missiles from there is science fiction. Layton comments that “it would require enormous amounts of fuel and propulsion mechanisms that have not yet been created,” ensuring that China has between 10 and 15 years left to develop the rocket technology necessary to put such an aircraft carrier into orbit. In D.W.space analyst Heinrich Kreft describe the project as “completely unreal from today’s perspective,” but he does not say that it is smoke because “much of what was fiction 20 or 30 years ago is real today.” Other analysts closer to the United States see the Luanniao as something with a single objective: to make the world believe that China has the technology to build this while hoarding resources to do other things. The undeniable. Whether it is psychological warfare, excessive ambition, smoke or something it is really working on, the undeniable thing is that China is taking giant steps in the new space race and weapons. We have already mentioned that they are accelerating the development of combat aircraft with stealth capabilities capable of standing up to whatever the United States deploys near its waters, but they have also joined that “first come, first served” space policy. Beyond satellites and systems that are a threat to security in space – according to the United States – they have been developing satellite technology for years. autonomous spacecraft and of reusable rockets with LandSpacethe answer to SpaceX’s Starship. But, in the end, all that is much more realistic than the enormous ship of 120,000 tons and more than 600 meters in span. But, as Kreft says, 30 years ago we also thought that current vehicles They were science fiction… Image | CCTV In Xataka | The US operation in Iran has staged one of the most impressive milestones of military engineering: the B-2 Spirit

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